Balthazar Getty Bio - Biography

During an art class at school in 1987 (some say 1989), young Balthazar Getty was spotted by a casting agent who offered him an audition for the film Lord of the Flies. He eventually won the lead role of Ralph, an athletic and charismatic boy battles against the baser impulses overtaken his friends. The 1990 film, based on the classic allegorical novel by Nobel Prize-winning author William Golding, is also something of a remake of the previous film adaptation in 1963. It also earned Balthazar a Young Artist Award nomination for Best Young Actor Starring in a Motion Picture.

Following his feature debut, Balthazar went on to portray Tom O'Folliard, the 14-year-old orphan who idolizes Billy the Kid in Geoff Murphy's sequel to Young Guns, Young Guns II, starring Emilio Estevez, Kiefer Sutherland, Lou Diamond Phillips and Christian Slater. For the second time, Balthazar nabbed another Young Artist Award nomination, this time for Best Young Actor Supporting Role in a Motion Picture.

Balthazar starred as Allister Gibbs, a high school sophomore who falsifies his age in writer-director Gabe Torres' teen drama/thriller set in a New England Military School, December (1991), before receiving another Young Artist Award nomination for his turn as Jud, the son of Kate Capshaw's character, in Stuart Rosenberg's independent family drama My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys (1991; also starring Scott Glenn, Tess Harper, Gary Busey and Ben Johnson). Afterward, he appeared in Marc Rocco's critically-acclaimed teen drama film Where the Day Takes You (1992; starring Dermot Mulroney, Sean Astin and Lara Flynn Boyle), had a bit part as a gas station attendant in Oliver Stone's satirical movie Natural Born Killers (1994; starring Juliette Lewis and Woody Harrelson) and was cast as Olmeyer in Danny Cannon's action film based on the strip in the British comic 2000 AD, Judge Dredd (1995; starring Sylvester Stallone).

The rest of the 1990s saw Balthazar in Paul Haggis's independent musical drama Red Hot, playing a 1950s Russian music student with great rock'n'roll talent, and co-starring with Bill Pullman and Patricia Arquette in David Lynch's psychological thriller Lost Highway. He also played James Chandler in "The Swords" segment of Showtime's series "The Hunger."

In the new millennium, Balthazar landed a starring role as a former addict-turns-underground clubs frequent in writer-director Isaac H. Eaton's drama/thriller Shadow Hours and appeared in the TV commercial for iVote2.com. He then had a regular role as Nate, Alison Lohman's uncle, on the fall Fox primetime serial "Pasadena," and made cameo appearance in Wayne Wang's drama film, The Center of the World, starring Shane Edelman, Peter Sarsgaard and Molly Parker. He also played recurring character Richard Montana (2003-2004) on the WB's hit supernatural drama "Charmed."

After acting opposite Joaquin Phoenix and John Travolta in Jay Russell's drama film about firefighters, Ladder 49 (2004), Balthazar received a Golden Satellite Award nomination for his supporting turn as Ben Edmonds in the TV mini-series "Traffic." From 2005 to 2006 (season 5), he joined the cast of ABC's spy-fi series starring Jennifer Garner, "Alias," playing Thomas Grace, a new agent on the APO team, a black-ops division of the CIA originally intended to replace agent Michael Vaughn.

Meanwhile, he portrayed David Wheeler on the TNT miniseries produced by Steven Spielberg, "Into the West," and starred in John Gulager's horror film Feast, a result of the third season Project Greenlight contest which was executive produced by Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Wes Craven and Chris Moore. He also joins Sally Field, Calista Flockhart and Rachel Griffiths on ABC family drama "Brothers & Sisters," as Tommy (2006-2007), the Walkers' oldest son and businessman.

Moviegoers recently saw him in David Arquette's directorial debut, a slasher film called The Tripper. He has wrapped his upcoming film, West of Brooklyn, a drama comedy helmed by Danny Cistone.

Adding to his acting career, Balthazar is also a musician. The left-handed artist, who used to be in a band with David Arquette called Thirteen Floor and formed the band Ringside with his friend Scott Thomas, has goes under the name of 'B-Zar' and produced nine tracks for the 'Mannish' L.P, "Audio Sedative."

"As much as I love film, there's nothing like the satisfaction of making music. My dream is to film one or two movies a year for the rest of my life and make music in between." Balthazar Getty.